Recycling a 65 sportvan custom.

Wouldn't the peirod correct plates be those sweet blue with yellow lettered ones? I'm just wanting to get a set of custom plates.

Good question, I thought black and yellow plates ran till 67

Here you go. Looks like the blue and yellow began in 1969. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_California

I got up early this morning while my girl went to the gym, I got a work out of my own. I installed the master and pulled the rest of the steel lines. Then bent up the right front brake line and the rear brake line to the junction. At that point ill put a union and install a new straight section to the rear flex line.

Things to look for, metal shavings in your fittings.


I usually buy my brake line too long then cut it to length. That means I gotta re flare one end.


Right front line finished.


I took some time off to get some attends done but ill get more brake pics up when I get home.

Rolling along nicely!

After nearly 8 hours of climbing in out and under the van I'm sore. Lol the brakes are finally road worthy. At least the hydraulics are. The pads and springs looked ok for awhile. So I didn't change them. The drums looked new inside.

You guys could have warned me that in order to get the front wheel cylinders out you gotta take apart the whole dang front end! Lol this did expose the fact that my king pins are wiped out! Any cool remedy for that? I never did little king pins. Do I need a special ream?

Here is the brake routing with the double master

If you do a search on Topics for "kingpins" there should be some info cause kingpins seem to be something these old girls need to have replaced after all these years.

Sounds good, it's loose, not unsafe. So ill prolly knock out a few more essentials first.

Seems like forever ago I did my brake lines. looks good !! A way to get rid of those annoying wheel cylinders is get yourself some disc brake brackets and some stopping power.

Digz, in due time. We just need it to move and stop. Lol if this helps, I found a cool head start to the disk brakes as I was messing with the wheel cylinder.

This is a 7/16-20 banjo bolt, and a earls front stainless brake line for a jeep TJ (wrangler)


Here it is mounted at the frame


And here it is mounted at the wheel.


That should help when it comes time to put a set of calipers on.

Strangely enough. All three brake lines were slightly longer but had the right configuration at each end.

After messing with my girlfriends honda trail bike I got her to help me bleed the brakes. Now that that's over I spent some time putting the radiator back in. Everything aligned like factory. I got what autozone listed for cut to fit hoses and cut to fit I did. The bottom hose is nearly perfect. The top hose was an arm wrestling match. I won! So we filled the old girl up with plain water and started her up. She ran for about 10 min before the thermostat opened. Then burped up some water and we shut her off, topped her off again and put the cap on it. This time we ran her for about 30 min. Revved her up a bit and the tail pipe was warding off Mosquitos with all the smoke. Soon the smoke lessened and the dead hole picked up to a small miss. I'd say the rings are seating again. The more we play with this old van the more we are convinced she hasn't run since the late 90's. using the laser temp gauge I checked several surfaces. With the gun mainly pointing on the stat housing, she sat at 157-161 religiously. The upper tank maintained 90 and the lower hose 115. So we shut her off and checked her over one last time for leaks. The coolant system is solid! As for the rear main seal,.... Not so much. 45min of total run time left a spot in my driveway about 1 foot in diameter. Damn! That's why the chassis is so well lubed.... Well anyways, we made our first objective. Run on her own power. I still need to lube the throttle points and put that all back together. The maiden voyage is coming very soon!

Upper radiator hose was a bitch!

Lower radiator hose fit like OE

It's great to hear you're making excellent progress in a short amount of time. Radiator looks all snug as a bug in it's new home. Congrats on another success!

Thanks vanny, it just won't get done if I don't do it! Lol tomorrow ill make a few laps around the block and then this week ill stop by the DMV!

There is a list being made of guys wanting the disc brake brackets from M1dadio. Once he gets 10 then he will have them made. If you are planning them in the future, may want to jump on the list. Not sure how many he has right now. I am one of them. LOL

Tom

Thanks for the invite. I've got awhile before I commit to that. And honestly, ill prolly make my own brackets.

The gas tank is coming along nicely. Here is a screen shot. Looks like ill be cutting out the parts tonight. I'm waiting in line at the plasma table.

Here is the top. It's lowered in the middle so the sender doesn't hit the floor.


Here is the bottom. I put a sump in it so it can be run nearly dry.


Here is my universal sender. Ill plug that and the lines into the sender plate I made.



If you look closely at the edges of the tank you will notice the whole perimeter has a .250 offset for a fillet weld. That's how ill keep it fuel tight.

Well the gas tank made it from vertual to reality today.


The plasma sure make life easy.


It's starting to look like the cartoon drawing I made.

Looking good man! What guage sheet you making that out of? Looks pretty beefy.

I'm using .075 thick steel. It will be almost twice as heavy as stock, but mostly cause its bigger. I like the bigger stuff cause I can wire weld it. And if need be I don't have to worry about a puncture.

And Vwalla! One 25 gallon tank!


With a .250 offset I can get a full penetration weld around all the seams.

Looks great...I'm anxious to see how it's going to look mounted under there! Thanks for the pics, keep 'em coming!

Boy oh boy, me too. I need to mount it tomorrow to locate the filler neck. Also need to make new straps. I might do that tomorrow night. Need to get some foam rubber to put between the tank and the floor. So I still have some work ahead of me.

The moment you've all been waiting for, the gas tank test fit.
Here it is from far away held in by the floor jack.


Here it is a bit closer


As you can see I used up all the space! Lol


Here is the front of the tank. I'm tempted to add more tank. 


This is. The last place I gotta tune on. Looks like ill have to build a recess in the tank for the filler hose connection. Next time you see it ill be putting fuel in it. 

That looks really good! This would be a great help to those in need of a tank. I am sure you wouldn't have a hard time selling them.

tight fit, looks good!